Price 25 cents. 




^ztkxtl iCeatriit 



PUBLISHED BY 

A. D. Steinbach Press 

New Haven, conn 

1908. 




ly iEHfktfl foamtt. 



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WORKS OF EZEKIEL LEAVITT. 

i. Money, Money Above Everything, a comedy in 
4 acts, (in Russian.) 

2. Deborah, an epic poem in 4 parts, (in Russian.) 

3. One Truth, a story, (in Russian.) 

4. Poems (in Russian.) 

5. Tales and Sketches (in Hebrew.) 

6. Between Pressure (in Hebrew.) 

7. These Lights (in Hebrew.) 

8. Songs of Zion (in Hebrew) with music. 

9. Fables and Poems (in Russian.) 

10. We shall not go to Uganda, a poem, (in Hebrew.) 

n. To My Nation, a poem, (in Yiddish.) 

12. The Jewish Marseillaise (in Yiddish) with music. 

13. Silhouettes (in Hebrew.) 

14. Songs of Grief and Gladness (English.) 




EZEKIEL LEAVITT. 



COPYRIGHT 1908, 
BY A. D. STEINBACH 



PUBLISHED BY 

A. D. Steinbach Press 
150 State St., New Haven, Conn. 



EDUCATION AND PSYCHOLOGY. 



"The world is only saved by the breath of the school 
children.'" — Talmud. 

"No education deserves the name unless it develops 
thought. A true teacher should penetrate to whatever is 
vital in his pupil, and develop that by the light and heat of 
his own intelligence." — E. P. Whipple. 



Psychology is a science describing and explaining men- 
tal phenomena. Now since Education aims to train the 
mind, the science of Education ought to make fullest 
possible use of every branch of Psychology. There is a 
close interdependence between these two sciences, the 
purposes of Education still supreme in determining what 
is to be taught, yet depending upon the results of Psy- 
chology to show how and in what order the different 
subjects shall be taught. 

Before proceeding further with my views of the rela- 
tion between the two sciences, I wish to disclaim any at- 
tempt to show that with a full knowledge of Psycholog- 



6 Education and Psychology. 

ical theories, would come a full solution of all the per- 
plexing educational problems of the clay. I do not expect 
to attain any formulas tending to simplify and mechanize 
the work of teachers. Far from this is my position; for I 
strongly urge that a full appreciation of the relation of 
the two sciences would tend more than anything else to 
vitalize the increasing interest of teachers in their pupils. 

The fad of the last few years, the great pretensions 
made for the good derived from the application of Psy- 
chology to Education has been extravagant. We ought 
not, however, to condemn utterly this wild enthusiasm 
for a fad, if you will ; for much good can be seen resulting 
from it. We must point out its extravagances and abuses, 
and then more diligently make use of its great truths. 

When, in the early eighties of the nineteenth century, 
it was perceived how widespread was the discontent with 
the methods of the Normal School, investigation 
showed that a knowledge of the principles of teaching- 
was necessary to get teachers out of their mechanical rut 
into vital originality of teaching. Psychology was looked 
upon as being able to give the recpiired help to flexibility 
and adaptibility. Everywhere throughout the country 
came this tremendous enthusiasm for a science, which 
dealt with those aspects of mental life connected with the 
production of changes in human beings by consciously 



Education and Psychology. 7 

directed human influences. This was the hope entertained 
of the educational psychology, which it was believed 
would provide the teacher with methods obtained from ai 
consideration of psychological laws of learning. There 
was, however, little practical return from this new enthu- 
siastic attempt. 

There are many reasons for this. First of all the psy- 
chology taught was erroneous, unfit to bring any prac- 
tical results. It was the "old faculty psychologv," the 
training- of the imagination, the memory, etc. The mind 
was conceived as made up of so many faculties ; and 
learning dates for instance meant cultivating the memory 
faculty, learning poetry the imagination. These faculties 
were supposed to be unified by the self. This was the 
one great fault which brought about a reaction against 
the study of psychology as a factor in education. Another 
difficulty and a more serious one was our discoverv that 
we knew in reality very little about psychology. It was 
just beginning to get out of the metaphysical and into the 
scientific field, and was not sufficiently advanced to give 
man, engaged in the control of human forces, much more 
useful knowledge than he could obtain by observation of 
his own special problems, and by common sense infer- 
ences from what he sees in. daily life. The man who has 
brought out clearly and forcibly that the field of educa- 
tional psychology is small, yet very important, is Pro- 



8 Education and Psychology, 

fessor James, of Harvard University ; but many new facts 
have been urged since the appearance of his book. 

I will now point out what I think educational psychol- 
ogy can and is doing in helping us to improve our school 
systems of teaching. The aim is (a) to get students to 
look upon the mind as working according to definite laws. 
The student is to be the observing naturalist, and the 
teacher is to look upon the pupil as a reacting mind, 
working according to definite laws. In (Other words the 
aim is that the interest in the human organism would 
arouse the habit of recognizing laws of mind as well as of 
matter ; (b) educational psychology aims to stimulate in- 
terest to find these laws. We are to learn to introspect to 
find that the important law of association, for instance, 
will interpret the causes for the sequence of ideas in a 
revery as well as in conscious memory. We are to recog- 
nize that education can make most important use of this 
law of association in helping the training and develop- 
ment of the pupil ; (c) educational psychology can teach 
at what period memory for crude facts is best, when the 
power for abstract thinking comes, what are the periods 
for the peculiar mental traits of scepticism, melancholy, 
and the like. 

It is the business of the psychologist to investigate, the 
duty of the teacher to know what has been found out 



Education and Psychology. 9 

and to apply such knowledge as it fits his own peculiar 
conditions. There is a tremendous lot of work to be done 
to show the importance of the problems, to show how 
little we know of them, and therefore how important it is 
to investigate. This, however, is the work of the psy- 
chologist, the educational theorist, and not of the teacher 
The possession of laws already worked out, the habit of 
looking upon the child as a living thing working accord- 
ing to laws will give new interest to the teacher in the 
children as individuals, with their own peculiar traits in 
conjunction with the characteristics of all. 

The teacher needs interest in the mental life of his 
scholars, from the point of view of interpretation and 
appreciation of their mental states. The teacher must 
learn to understand the individual desires and ambitions 
and characters of his pupils ; for without this sympathy 
there is no interest, and the work is necessarily routine. 
Psychology offers general recommendations concerning 
the best ways to get girls and boys to study, to observe, 
to attend, to understand, remember and apply knowledge. 
It gives help on how to form habits, develop power and 
capacity. It forces the teacher to consider the physical 
conditions, if he wishes the best mental results. The 
teacher must consider questions of hygiene, of light, of 
air, of refreshment, of fatigue and other questions of the 
same bearing, which show that the condition of our 



io Education and Psychology. 

health is a great determining factor in the comprehension 
of the mental life. Psychology teaches us not to project 
our own state of consciousness into the child and imagine 
that we know the child. We want to get what the child 
is, not what we think it is. Psychology will help in point- 
ing out the true method for the development of the mind 
of the child. 

There are three ways, three special lines of psychologi- 
cal knowledge which can influence the practical working 
of education. 

I. The psychology of children shows facts about in- 
stinctive tendencies, the gradual maturing of capacities, 
tendencies useful and harmful in children's habits of ob- 
serving, associating, and reasoning, facts concerning the 
kinds and amount of knowledge children may be expected 
to possess at different ages and under different condi- 
tions. It points out the relation of the mental to the 
physical well being. Psychology furnishes us with the 
results of inquiry into nature, and the amount of indi- 
vidual differences. We learn to consider the relative 
shares of original nature and experience in the formation 
of human intellect and character. Those who plan educa- 
tional systems and construct programs of studies for 
schools and select methods for teaching, now find it to 
their advantage to take account of the relationship be- 



Education and Psychology. n 

tween various factors in education and certain traits of 
the human mind. The increased knowledge of individual 
differences makes the attempt to get every one in class 
on the same level of achievement futile. 

II. The knowledge of psychology teaches the educa- 
tor the great guide he can be in shaping the characters 
of scholars. Each one is able to shape mental life; for 
man is more nearly master of his own intellect than of 
anything else in nature. The mind is readily influenced 
for the nervous system is very modifyable. This general 
law of the modifiability of the mind by every thought and 
feeling and act of man's life is the most important of 
practical lessons of psychology. What we are depends 
on what we were in the past. Psychology shows that 
every thought, and act of life counts, that we build the 
ladder by which we climb, that nothing happens by 
chance. Man not only creates his own future ; but in 
some measure his own present by his power of selecting 
what features of his surroundings shall influence him. 
The psychology of attention then teaches that we are as 
trul}- rulers as victims of circumstances. 

III. Another of the practical problems is to conduct 
life so as to think and act rightly with as little effort or 
strain possible. Psychology offers help in two ways: 

(a) Tension and effortare lessoned by arrang-inof circum- 



'&"■& 



i2 Education and Psychology. 



stances that undesirable ideas and impulses will seldom 
appear. If the child, for instance, finds it hard to study 
and concentrate the mind in the midst of the family circle, 
he should have a room where no distracting noises could 
serve to disturb him. 

(b) Intelligent workers soon learn that discretion is the 
better part of valor — that to avoid temptation is wiser 
than to resist it. Then it is not always true that the 
harder work we make of our mental tasks the better we 
do it. Success is measured by the amount done, not by 
the feelings experienced in doing it. The best men mor- 
ally are those who do right without a moral struggle. 

Again the relation of psychology to education makes 
its best practical application, when a system of education 
finds its best results in making use of the powers of the 
child according to the order and the strength of their de- 
velopment, and in endeavoring to direct those powers 
into right directions. 

Psychology shows the educator that from its first years 
until the ages of six or seven the child is more or less 
the sport of circumstances, that the mind is passive, that 
there is wry little voluntary attention From this time 
until about fourteen the mind becomes more and mur-' 



Education and Psychology. 13 

active. It is not only acted upon by environment, but 
reacts upon it. Sensation and perception are now stored 
in a working memory. A thing well learned at this age 
is rarely forgotten. The judgment gradually becomes 
more reliable, the reasoning begins, and the feelings are 
kept more under control. The will develops rapidly often 
causing self assertiveness at this age. From this time 
until the ages of twenty or thereabout, the mind becomes 
more subjective, it systematizes the knowledge of previ- 
ous years. The verbal memory is weak. The aid of judg- 
ment is now invoked to memory. The spontaneous feel- 
ings are more and more subject to will and intellect. Alan 
is less ana less influenced by environment. Development 
leads from dependence to independence. Education in 
promoting the development of the mind will accomplish 
most by following the path of least resistance — that is by 
making use of the psychological analysis of the develop- 
ment of the mind. 

This leads us to a consideration of the educational 
value of voluntary and involuntary attention ; for herein 
lies the difference between the old and the new school of 
education. Once effort was everything, interest nothing; 
but it is found that will power implied in effort is lacking 
in young children. Keeping this in mind, teachers now 
relv on interest for securing attention, because little chil- 
dren, it is found, have little will power, and are incapable 



14 Education and Psychology. 

of prolonged effort. We also know that the feelings of 
children are fairly well developed, and it is therefore 
easier to excite the feelings bv interest than by trvinsf to 

make them put forth effort. It is the degree and not the 
cause of attention which, gives the depth, of an impression. 
It is seen that we now attempt to make our teaching in- 
teresting by working in harmony with the characteristics 
of the child's mind at the respective stages of develop- 
ment. 1 will grant, however, that man}' have embraced 
the new system too thoroughly and are overlooking the 
fact that we must inculcate habits of attention. We must 
always guard, therefore, against the dangers of the too 
cas} education winch excludes effort. 

Psychology shows us that interest may be promoted by 
a changing or enlarging environment, and by increasing 
the knowledge of things already in the environment. It 
is then a problem oi discovering at what age the pupil is 
sensitive to certain phases of his surroundings: and to 
determine what methods would increase the knowledge of 
things in his environment. 




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